The emphasis of this project is on providing descriptions of less well-known problems, and the problem descriptions here represent a compilation of views from published documents (usually from international organizations). The text provided does not necessarily constitute the best possible description of the problem, since a compromise has had to be struck between availability of information, the resources to process it, and the space available.

Problems do not have unique or official names. Many of the problems profiled have two or more other associated names associated to reflect different keywords and ways of describing them. Some have up to ten names. The alphabetic list, based on a single name per problem, is therefore an essentially arbitrary ordering of the problems. As a random presentation of the contents of the database, it has the advantage of drawing attention to the variety of concerns faced by individuals and groups.

Entry numbers have been allocated randomly; they have no significance other than as a permanent point of reference to facilitate indexing, cross-referencing, and updating between editions. Entries in the book version are in numeric order.

Index access to entries

In the book, the location of an entry in this sub-section may be determined from the Volume Index (Section PX) on the basis of keywords in the name of the entry or its alternate titles.

This project is part of the more general long-term project for an Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, from which a general introduction may be accessed. This page introduces the strategies portion of that project. Information on the publication is also available in its hardcover and CD-ROM forms.

To help users understand how the strategies are distinguished in the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, codes have been appended to the strategy names on the index pages (and at the end of each profile). These codes correspond to the type sections into which the strategy profiles have been tentatively clustered in the Encyclopedia. They are designed to distinguish the more general and fundamental strategies from those which are more specific or detailed. More detailed comments on each type are given by following the hyperlinks: